The EIS, which covers the integrated development of the site including mine, haul road and river barging terminal, plans for up to 6 million tonnes of coal mined per annum.

With government approval, the two-year compilation of environmental and social baseline studies will enable the project to upgrade to an exploratory tenement to a leased mining operation.

The area covered by the EIS does not have any protected forest zones and is suitable for open cut mining.

Cokal said submission of the study to the government has kept the approvals process for BBM on track with a construction slated to begin in Q4 2013.

“We have started to expand our team ahead of the expected project development with the employment of civil engineers, mining engineers and project managers, as well as substantially increased our community liaison and environmental staff,” Cokal managing director Jim Middleton said.

“We are proud of the experienced and competent team of Indonesian mining professionals we continue to attract and our health, education and training initiative have helped gain positive support of the project from the local communities.”

Cokal has three large capacity drill rigs on site targeting 200Mt to 350Mt of coal to a depth of 200m.

A JORC resource of 70Mt (inferred) in four seams has been established at BBM with a plan to produce 5.6Mtpa of saleable product by the first half of 2014.

The project covers 19,400ha of the prospective metallurgical Upper Barito Coal Basin and is adjacent to BHP Billiton’s Indomet Coal project, Joloi.